Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Barcelona, Spain metro area from 1950 to 2025.

In 2024, Madrid was the city with the most inhabitants in Spain. In that year, more than 3.42 million people lived in the city. Barcelona was the second-largest city with 1.69 million residents.

Tourists who paid for a travel package to visit Barcelona in 2023 spent on average around 1.2 thousand euros. Moreover, the transport from or to the Spanish city cost on average around 382 euros for all overnight tourists in that year, according to the survey.

Air transport is the main mode of transport for adult tourists visiting the Spanish city of Barcelona. In 2023, roughly eight out of ten travelers surveyed reported to have traveled by air to that destination. Train was the second most popular means of travel to Catalonia's capital, accounting for 10 percent of respondents.

The number of tourists who stayed in accommodations establishments in the Spanish city of Barcelona amounted to nearly 9.9 million in 2023, which is around 14.8 percent more versus the previous year. Hotels hosted the largest number of overnight visitors in Barcelona, with approximately eleven million in total.

The number of ferry passengers in the Spanish city of Barcelona increased by nearly nine percent in 2023, reaching also the highest figure since 2010. In total, Barcelona's port handled close to 1.7 million ferry passengers in 2023.

In 2023, approximately 980 thousand international hotel guests in the city of Barcelona were from the United States, while another 579 thousand traveled to the popular Spanish destination from France. The majority of lodgings in Barcelona are not hotels but homes for touristic use.

According to a survey, online travel agencies (OTAs) were the most popular platform used by tourists in Barcelona who planned their trips using internet sources in 2023. Overall, nearly 50 percent of respondents said to have used websites like Booking, Expedia, or Tripadvisor to make the arrangements for their trip.

The number of cruise passengers handled in the port of Barcelona bounced back to approximately 3.6 million in 2023, after the harsh impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The cruise passenger traffic in that Spanish port plummeted by 93.7 percent and 83.4 percent in those years versus 2019.

Barcelona: among the top Spanish cruise destinations

With 807 cruise ship calls, Barcelona handled the third-largest number of cruise vessels in Spain in 2022, only after the Canary Islands’ ports. As a result, Barcelona was the leading Spanish cruise tourist hub that year, registering a difference of less than half a million passengers with that insular autonomous community.

The recovery of cruise tourism in Spain after COVID-19

In 2022, Spain's tourism made a strong recovery from the pandemic, although monthly cruise passenger numbers remained below 2019 levels. October stood out with over 1.2 million cruise travelers in Spanish ports. Meanwhile, Barcelona saw a 63 percent increase in ferry passengers, reaching a decades-high of nearly 1.6 million, and over 800 cruise ships, a significant rebound from the previous year, which had been heavily impacted by the pandemic.

The number of hotel rooms in the Spanish city of Barcelona at the end of 2023 amounted to approximately 39 thousand. This figure represents a slight decline from the previous year, though remaining above the previous years.

Leisure was the main reason to travel to Barcelona, Spain in 2023, according to a survey. In that year, roughly seven out of ten respondents said they had visited the popular Spanish city for holidays or recreation. By contrast, this share was only at 42 percent in 2000 versus 54 percent of respondents saying that they traveled to the city for business or professional reasons.

In the year 2023, the bed occupancy rate of hotels in Barcelona reached more than 82.2 percent, narrowing the gap to a complete return to pre-pandemic figures. This was the highest figure recorded in years. Hotels in Barcelona offered around 76.7 thousand beds in 2023.

In 2023, the number of hotel overnight stays in the Spanish city of Barcelona increased by more 10 percent versus the previous year. This was also the highest figure recorded since 1990. In that year, hotels in the Catalonian capital recorded around 3.8 million overnight stays.

London was by far the largest urban agglomeration in the United Kingdom in 2023, with an estimated population of 9.65 million people, more than three times as large as Manchester, the UK’s second-biggest urban agglomeration. The agglomerations of Birmingham and Leeds / Bradford had the third and fourth-largest populations respectively, while the biggest city in Scotland, Glasgow, was the fifth largest. Largest cities in Europe Two cities in Europe had larger urban areas than London, with the Russian capital Moscow having a population of almost 12.7 million. The city of Paris, located just over 200 miles away from London, was the second-largest city in Europe, with a population of more than 11.2 million people. Paris was followed by London in terms of population-size, and then by the Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona, at 6.75 million and 5.68 million people respectively. Russia's second-biggest city; St. Petersburg had a population of 5.56 million, followed by Rome at 4.3 million, and Berlin at 3.5 million. London’s population growth Throughout the 1980s, the population of London fluctuated from a high of 6.81 million people in 1981 to a low of 6.73 million inhabitants in 1988. During the 1990s, the population of London increased once again, growing from 6.8 million at the start of the decade to 7.15 million by 1999. London's population has continued to grow since the turn of the century, reaching a peak of 8.96 million people in 2019, and is forecast to reach 9.8 million by 2043.

The average daily rate (ADR) of hotels and hostels in Barcelona stood at roughly 124.5 euros in December 2023, growing by around 11.4 percent versus the same month of the previous year. October 2023 registered the highest Barcelona's highest ADR since 2021.

In 2023, the trade, transport, and accommodation industries in Catalonia contributed roughly 69 billion euros to the region's gross domestic product (GDP), denoting an increase of nearly 8.2 percent over the previous year. This figure was the highest value recorded since 2017.

The number of tourists who stayed in accommodations establishments in the Spanish city of Barcelona amounted to nearly 12.7 million in 2024. Hotels hosted the largest number of overnight visitors in Barcelona, with approximately eleven million in total.

In 2023, the average number of employees in tourism industries in Catalonia, Spain amounted to 296 thousand, which represents a significant increase of around 5.6 percent versus the previous year.

As recorded by the source, Moroccans ranked as the foreign nationality with more residents in Spain in 2023, closely followed by Romanians. After years of losing its foreign population, Spain’s immigration figures started to pick up in 2015, with the number of people that moved to the Mediterranean country surpassing the number of foreigners that decided to leave.

A matter of balance The net migration rate of Spain changed its course mainly due to the great inflow of foreigners that move to reside in the Mediterranean country. Spain’s immigration flow slowed down after the 2008 financial crisis, albeit the number of foreigners that opted to change their residence saw a significant growth in the last years. In 2022, Colombians ranked first as the foreign nationality that most relocated to Spain, distantly followed by Moroccans and Ukranians.

Spain does not have the highest number of immigrants in Europe In recent years, the European Union confronted a rising number of refugees arriving from the Middle East. Migration figures show that Germany accommodated approximately 15 million foreign-born citizens, ranking it as the country that most hosted immigrants in Europe in 2022. By comparison, Spain’s foreign population stood slightly over seven million, positioning the Western Mediterranean country third on the European list of foreign-born population. Unfortunately, thousands of persons have died ore gone missing trying to reach Spanish territory, as more and more irregular migrants opt to use dangerous maritime routes to arrive at Southern Europe from Africa's coasts.

Spain has a long history of Islamic tradition under its belt. From cuisine to architecture, the southern European country has been linked to the North of Africa through many common elements. At the end of 2023, there were approximately 2.41 million Muslims in Spain, most of them of Spanish and Moroccan nationality, with upwards of eight hundred thousand believers in both cases. With a Muslim population of more than 660,000 people, Catalonia was home to the largest Muslim community in Spain as of the same date.

The not so Catholic Spain

Believers of a religion other than Catholicism accounted for approximately 3 percent of the Spanish population, according to the most recent data. Although traditionally a Catholic country, Spain saw a decline in the number of believers over the past years. Compared to previous years, when the share of believers accounted for slightly over 70 percent of the Spanish population, the Catholic community lost ground, while still being the major religion for the foreseable future.

A Catholic majority, a practicing minority

Going to mass is no longer a thing in Spain, or so it would seem when looking at the latest statistics about the matter: 50 percent of those who consider themselves Catholics almost never attend any religious service in 2024. The numbers increased until 2019, from 55.5 percent of the population never attending religious services in 2011 to 63.1 percent in 2019. The share of population that stated to be practicing believers and go to mass every Sunday and on the most important holidays accounted for only 15.5 percent.